Went to China to understand their strategy: Mullen

Washington: Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman
of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, who recently visited China
has said the main purpose of his visit was to understand the
Chinese strategy and express his concerns about their
high-tech developments.

"One of the most important parts, or the reasons that I
went to China was try to understand their strategy and what
they`re doing better and certainly continue to express both
concerns about some of their highly technical developments",
Mullen said during a media round table last week while he was
in South Korea following his China trip.

Mullen said that though there is more transparency in
Chinese military than it was before but it does not really
mean that China`s increasing military capabilities are only
defensive in nature.

"I can tell you, having been there for almost four days,
there is now more transparency from my perspective than there
was before I visited. That`s why the relationship-building is
so important," Mullen told reporters in Japan, according to
the transcripts released by the Pentagon here.

"I think that as we build this relationship and we have
the exchanges and understand each other better, that issue of
transparency will certainly fade. It hasn`t faded as a result
of a single visit," he said, adding the Chinese told them that
their military capabilities are defensive in nature.

Mullen who visited several military bases in China said,
"I did visit several of their bases, saw some of their
equipment, their people, and as I said, General Chen
emphasised these were all defensive in nature, along with the
carrier".

Noting that he went to China to take a step in renewing
the military-to-military relationship, Mullen said he has had
a conversation on issues that they both agree and disagree on.

"From a long-term strategy, from my perspective it`s too
early to understand where China is really going with this.
They say it`s defensive; we`ll see. There are some pretty good
capabilities there that certainly could be not just defensive,
but offensive as well," Mullen added.

On China`s increased military capability, Mullen said,
"With this rising power and increased capability that China
has, also from my perspective in economic growth, comes
responsibility for regional stability, for global stability.

And certainly, that`s a point of continuous emphasis in my
discussions with them".